iPhone vs DSLR: Test #1,982,461

I know I’m not the first person to do this — in fact, I’m probably closer to the 2 millionth person — but I thought it’d be a fun experiment nonetheless. On my recent honeymoon to Italy, I took pictures of some locations with both a DSLR and an iPhone 4. Can you tell which is which?

Burano

Venice

Rome

The Colosseum

The answer? The iPhone pics are on the left in every row, except for the last row.

The pictures taken in the Colosseum show a more striking difference, likely because I was less careful with sun-placement and framing.

No touch-up work was done to any photos. What you see up there is exactly what the “auto” settings of each device provides. In a couple photos, you’ll see that the iPhone’s default settings naturally saturate colors a little more than the dSLR. That’s probably intentional on Apple’s part, as color is the first thing people notice about photos, even if it’s not entirely accurate.

The dSLR I used was an Olympus E-420. Why an Olympus when everyone else uses a Nikon or a Canon? Because at the time it was the absolute smallest dSLR available (and I still think it’s the smallest dSLR with a full-sized sensor). But it’s still a lug to carry around, and nothing screams “I’m a tourist, rob me” louder than a giant camera around your neck. So on sunny days, I had absolutely no problem leaving the dSLR in the hotel safe and walking around with just my trusty iPhone.

Since a picture is worth so many words, I’ll just leave you with these photos taken only with an iPhone 4 at 7am on a Sunday morning in Venice…